Persona (Kosmos-2486)

Location

43/4 (43R)

Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

43/4 (43R) has witnessed the launch of 324 rockets, including 324 orbital launch attempts. While Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation, has been the site for 1675 rocket launches.

Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk. Originally developed as an ICBM site for the R-7 missile, it also served for numerous satellite launches using the R-7 and other rockets. Its high latitude makes it useful only for certain types of launches, especially the Molniya orbits, so for much of the site's history it functioned as a secondary location, with most orbital launches taking place from Baikonur, in the Kazakh SSR. With the end of the Soviet Union, Baikonur became a foreign territory, and Kazakhstan charged $115 million usage fees annually. Consequently, Plesetsk has seen considerably more activity since the 2000s.

Rocket

Progress Rocket Space Center Soyuz 2.1b

Soyuz-2 is the 21st-century version of the Russian Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage carrier rocket for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. The 2.1b version adds an upgraded engine (RD-0124) with improved performance to the second stage.

Learn more about the Soyuz 2.1b